Dangerous Enthusiasm - William Blake and the Culture of Radicalism in the 1790s

William Blake's work presents a stern challenge to historical criticism. Jon Mee's study meets that challenge by investigating contexts outside the domain of standard literary histories. He traces the distinctive rhetoric of the illuminated books to the French Revolution controversy of the 1790s and Blake's fusion of the diverse currents of radicalism abroad in that decade. Dangerous Enthusiasm presents a more comprehensively politicized picture of Blake than any previous study. It is supported by a wealth of original research which will be of interest to historians and literary critics alike. Blake emerges from these pages as a "bricoleur" who fused the language of London's popular dissenting culture with the more skeptical radicalism of the Enlightenment. His prophetic books are shown to be less the expressions of isolated genius than the products of a complex response to the cultural politics of his contemporaries.

Summary

Dangerous Enthusiasm considers Blake's prophetic books written during the 1790s in the light of the French Revolution controversy raging at the time. His works are shown to be less the expressions of isolated genius than the products of a complex response to the cultural politics of his contemporaries.

Additional text

splendid volume

Product details

• Authors: Jon Mee, Mee Jon
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 13.10.1994
• EAN: 9780198183297
• ISBN: 978-0-19-818329-7
• Dimensions: 139 mm x 216 mm x 22 mm
• Weight: 386 g
• Illustrations: 8 pp plates
• Series: Clarendon Paperbacks; Clarendon Paperbacks
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Literary studies: poetry and poets, C 1700 To C 1800